


Waiting for the Moment

by fairychangeling



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Affairs, Cowboy Dean, Destiel Harlequin Challenge, M/M, Past Castiel/Michael (Supernatural), Past Infidelity, Referenced Bottom Castiel, Referenced Top Dean
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-15
Updated: 2017-07-15
Packaged: 2018-12-02 15:19:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,174
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11512077
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fairychangeling/pseuds/fairychangeling
Summary: It was all the fault of a handsome Cowboy named Dean.It’s been four months since Castiel fled his wedding, leaving his finance - the town’s most eligible bachelor - at the altar. Four months in which Castiel has been the most hated man in town.Four months and now here Dean is again.





	Waiting for the Moment

**Author's Note:**

> Based on the following summary prompt:
> 
> Will this high-society runaway bride find true love with a blue-collar cowboy?
> 
> It’s been four months since Natalie Bailey fled her country club wedding, stranding Copper Ridge’s golden boy at the altar. She’s still the town’s most hated woman, even though she knows she did the right thing. Life’s been painfully lonely ever since.
> 
> The last thing she needs is to see him again.
> 
> Mark Brown should never have gotten involved with ice princess Natalie. But from the moment they met, there was no stopping the wildfire of passion between them. Their affair burned down her sham of an engagement (which was good) but also his heart (that part, not so good). Now a chance meeting may revive those flames—if Natalie leaves her old life behind for a future with him…

Castiel didn’t come down into town very often if he could help it. He preferred to stay up in his cabin, licking his wounds. He didn’t like being the subject of hash whispers and angry stares. It was his own fault, he knew that, but he still didn’t like it. He could hardly turn around and confront anyone, could he? He couldn’t tell them why he’d left Michael at the altar. 

No one would care anyway. Michael was the golden boy of the town, the owner of the local Mill that employed most of the people who lived there. When you owed a man your livelihood, you weren’t likely to listen to the guy who broke his heart. Castiel knew all of that. 

He also knew that it wasn’t Michael’s fault he’d run away. 

If Michael could have been less of a decent guy, it would have made things easier, but there was nothing wrong with him. He was thoroughly nice, if a little haughty, and their marriage - Castiel, the heir of a family who’d made their money in shipping, and Michael who had the manufacturing background, should have been perfect. On paper, for the good of their families and for economic reasons, it was. 

Only Castiel wasn’t in love with him. 

That hadn’t been such a problem until Castiel had met him.

Castiel sighed, looking up and down the street, checking for traffic before he crossed and headed towards the hardware store. 

He shouldn’t dwell on that mistake. It was long over and he’d never see _him_ again. Castiel had to fix those loose tiles on the roof or else the next time it rained, it would start dripping into the living room. Normally he would have called someone to fix it for him, but no-one in town would take his calls. It had been nearly four months since Castiel had bolted from his own wedding, and he was still persona non grata with the local community. 

It shouldn’t be too difficult to replace a few tiles though, Castiel thought as he pushed open the door of the hardware store.

The bell above the door jingled and all heads turned in his direction.

Castiel cringed inwardly. He had wanted to keep a low profile, but it seemed half the town were in there today. 

He wasn’t about to turn tail now. If he’d wanted to, he could have run back to to the city and his family home a long time ago. Sometimes Castiel wondered why he didn’t, but he couldn’t. Some stubborn streak in him told him to stay, even when everything around him was hopeless. 

Already Castiel could hear the whispers. He squared his shoulders and held his head high, refusing to be intimidated. 

He walked up to the desk at the front of the store.

“I need to fix some tiles on the roof, can you help me?” he asked.

The man behind the desk stared at him for a long moment, then he turned away, ignoring Castiel, and began to fiddle with the cash register.

“Is there someone else who can help me?” Castiel asked, but he was met by the same response, a wall of silence from the man.

“Fine,” Castiel sighed. “I’ll help myself.” 

He ducked down the nearest row of shelves, scanning them briefly for what he was looking for, but he had no idea where anything was kept in this store. He wasn’t going to give up though. If it took him the best part of the day, he’d find the things he needed.

“Castiel?” the sound of his own name gave him a shock, but what shocked him more was the voice that called to him. 

It had been months since he’d heard that voice. He could never forget it. Rich and deep, with just the hint of a twang to remind him that this was a good ol’ country boy. That voice was etched into his memory. It filled his dreams and his fantasies and Castiel had thought he’d never, ever, hear it again.

That voice belong to _him._

Castiel didn’t look at him. He couldn’t. Already he could feel his cheeks burning red. 

“Cas, that is you, isn’t it?” 

Castiel forced himself to turn around and look at the man. 

He was just as handsome as Castiel remembered him. 

Dean Winchester, the man who’d made Castiel forget all about propriety and his pending wedding vows. The man who’d coaxed him to heights of passion with his clever probing fingers and quick tongue, who’d made Castiel come harder than he ever had in his life. The man with whom he’d spent a wild weekend, the man who’d fucked him over every flat surface in the motel room they’d rented. 

The man Castiel had run away from on the Monday morning when the cold light of day sobered him up and reminded him that he had obligations, a fiancé and a wedding planned.

“I have to go,” Castiel said, pushing past Dean, ignoring the stares that still followed him from the shoppers in the little store. 

He pushed open the door and step out onto the empty street outside, breathing hard.

Dean didn’t know it, but he’d ruined Castiel’s life.

It had been Dean he’d thought of when he stood at the altar. 

In the space of the seventy-two hours they spent together, Castiel had fallen in love with Dean. It wasn’t just lust - although he’d felt that in spades. He’d been willing to do something crazy like run off with Dean, if Dean asked him to, and that had terrified Castiel. 

Then he _had_ done something crazy, walking out on Michael on the day of their wedding, and Castiel knew it was because his heart could never belong to anyone but Dean. 

He’d never expected to see Dean again though.

Dean had told him when they met that he was only in town for a few days, picking up supplies before heading back to his ranch. He was a cowboy. He didn’t belong to the same world that Castiel did. They were complete opposites, and maybe that was why Castiel had been drawn to him. Dean was nothing like the men he’d date before, nothing like Michael to whom he was engaged. 

Dean was rough and ready. He looked Castiel up and down the moment he saw him, whistled low and set out to seduce him. There was no pretence, no long preamble. Dean saw what he wanted and he went for it.

The door behind Castiel opened, then a hand clamped on his shoulder.

“Is that they way it’s gonna be, Cas? You gonna run off again?” Dean hissed.

Castiel turned, so close to him now they were practically chest to chest. He could see the sun-kissed freckles on Dean’s tanned skin, see the hurt in his eyes. 

He’d never looked for Dean because he’d fallen so hard for him, so fast. He’d been frightened Dean wouldn’t feel the same way. It could have just been sex for Dean. He was a handsome cowboy, looking for a little amusement before he went back to his ranch. Castiel had told himself that over and over again, but now he wasn’t sure he believed it. 

“Are you married now?” Dean asked. 

They’d talked about it. Dean had asked about Castiel’s engagement ring during a quiet moment, curled up in bed together. He’d laughed after Castiel told him he was getting married. He’d kissed Castiel shoulder and told him he wasn’t. ‘ _You don’t really wanna marry this guy if you let me pick you up,_ ’ he’d said, his eyes twinkling and his smile strong. 

“No, I’m not...I left him,” Castiel said.

Dean relaxed visibly. 

“When?” 

“The wedding day. It was a few months ago,” Castiel said, turning his head to glance up the street, making sure no one was watching them. “I thought you said you didn’t come into town very often.”

“I don’t,” Dean agreed. “It’s been four months. I wouldn’t count that as often.” 

Castiel nodded. 

“I thought you’d have gone home if you didn’t end up marrying,” Dean said. “I...well...I looked you up after you left, looked up your family. I thought you’d have gone back to them or maybe out to Tuscany or France. I read you had homes there too.” 

Castiel smiled sadly. He didn’t let himself think too deeply about the fact that Dean had looked him up. It was probably just curiosity. Castiel came from a rich family. It was natural that Dean would want to know more. 

“My family do, but I didn’t want to go home, or to any of their other houses. I wanted to stay here.”

Dean stared at him. Castiel could feel his cheeks heating up again. 

“I should go,” he said, although his feet felt rooted to the spot. 

He wanted to stay there, to stay with Dean, but he forced himself to move, to start the steps back to his car.

He had said too much. 

Castiel knew why he had stayed. He'd stayed because as much as he’d dreaded meeting Dean again, he’d also craved it. He had stayed for the chance that their paths might cross, that the spark that had been there when Dean picked him up would still be there when they saw each other again. He’d hoped they could fall back into each other’s arms, to pick up where they’d left off, but now he saw that it was hopeless. A dream he’d been nurturing that could never possibly come true. 

He didn’t want to stay for the moment that Dean broke his heart, when he told him it had been fun, but that was all. Castiel knew he was crazy, running away from the safety and security of his family home and the easy marriage with Michael on the basis of a brief affair with a man who knew almost nothing about him. He didn’t need Dean to tell him that. 

“I thought about you,” Dean called out after him suddenly. 

Castiel stopped and turned, not certain he’d heard the words right.

“I thought about coming to look for you, to take you away with me, but you seemed so certain and I….” Dean trailed off. 

He looked uncomfortable. Castiel supposed he wasn’t used to making declarations like this, especially not on the high street where anyone could overhear them. 

Castiel wasn’t used to hearing declarations like this either. Michael’s offer of marriage had held all the romance of a business proposal. 

“You must think I’m a real piece of work, right?” Dean said, shaking his head. “We spend one weekend together and I start getting ideas about taking you home and settling down with you. You must think I’m mad. Hell, _I_ think I’m mad. I’ve never felt this way about anybody before.”

Castiel’s heart skipped a beat. He didn’t know what to say. He opened and closed his mouth uselessly, waiting for the words to come to him, but they never came. 

Dean looked at him hopelessly.

“Why didn’t you marry him?” he asked. “I’ll go away after this. I just...I need to know.”

Castiel swallowed, his mouth painfully dry now.

“I fell in love with another man,” he said. 

For a moment, Dean looked as if he didn’t believe the words. He pointed to himself, nothing short of incredulous, but when Castiel nodded he broke into a run, sprinting to Castiel’s side. He picked him up and spun him round in his arms, grinning like a loon. Castiel laughed, for the first time in a long time, grabbing hold of Dean’s shoulders to keep himself steady. 

Dean lowered him gently and kissed him, the same powerful kiss that Castiel remembered from their weekend together. It made him feel weak at the knees even now. 

For so long now, Castiel had debated whether it was possible to fall in love with someone the first time you met. He had told himself over and over that it wasn’t, even when his heart rebelled against him. He’d told himself that Dean wouldn’t feel the same way, that even if what Castiel felt was real, it didn’t mean it was reciprocated, but now he was here in Dean’s arms and he knew what they’d both felt that weekend was real. He knew now that with the right person, at the right time, it was possible to fall in love in an instant. 

Dean broke the kiss, cupping Castiel’s face in his hands and gazed into his eyes.

“Come home with me,” he said. “Live on the ranch with me. I can’t promise you it will be anything like you’ve known before, but we’ll be together.”

It wouldn’t be anything like he’d known before, Castiel was already certain of that. It would be real; the authentic, heart-pounding love he felt with Dean, he love he’d spent so long trying to deny himself. They would be and would belong to each other and it was everything Castiel had needed. 

“Yes,” Castiel said, smiling. “Yes.”


End file.
